Table of Contents
On the Poems of Maurya Simon 15
Questions My Daughters Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Them 19
From The Enchanted Room
The Sibyl 25
The Origin of Death 27
The Soldier 28
Tooth Fairy 30
Snails 32
Tat Tvam Asi 33
The Bearer's Son 35
Firewalking 37
Madras Insomnia 39
Epitaph 40
From Days of Awe
Clothes That Wear Me 43
Breakwater 47
Boy Crazy 49
Dream Babies 51
For Naomi 52
Contusion 53
Theme and Variations 55
Survival 56
King Midas's Daughter 57
Madras Lament 58
From Speaking in Tongues
Origins 63
From The Golden Labyrinth
Want 81
Dharma 82
Karma 85
Leah in the Vale of Tears 86
The Ugly Dog 87
Alex in Hindustan 90
Banded Krait 92
Elegy in a Snowstorm 94
Meditation at Twilight 98
Bangalore Lullaby 99
From A Brief History of Punctuation
I The Creation of the Question Mark 103
II Ellipses 104
III The Inception of the Colon 106
IV The Era of the Period 108
V The Invention of the Comma 109
VI Parentheses: A Bestiary 111
VII A Hyphenated Rondo 113
VIII The Birth of Dashes 114
IX Claiming the Apostrophe 117
X The Semicolon: A Totem 118
From Ghost Orchid
The Ravens 121
The Search 123
The Fallen Angel 125
The Rapture 126
Black Haloes 127
All Souls' Day 129
Angels 130
Unfinished Psalm 132
An Unkempt Brilliance I Fear but Cannot Name 133
Transubstantiation 137
Benediction 139
From Weavers
I Sisters 143
II The Wedding Dress 145
III Rapture 147
IV Madrigal 149
V The Virgin and the Widow 152
VI The House of Women 154
VII The Healer 157
VIII Hie Saint 159
IX Epiphany 162
X The Unfolding 165
XI The Dreamer 168
XII The Magician 170
XIII The Outcast 173
XIV The Lover 176
XV Benediction 178
From Cartographies
Snow 183
Second Born 187
Purview 188
Dulce et Decorum Est 190
City of Angels 192
Bark with Authority 194
El Día de los Muertos 196
The Dolphin 198
Waste Management 199
A Small Elegy for a Big Dog 200
Marriage Vow 201
Black Widow 202
The Voyage 203
Ten Versions of Ruin and Repair 204
From The Raindrop's Gospel: The Trials of St, Jerome and St. Paula
Genealogies 211
Chronologies of the Lives of St. Jerome and St. Paula 212
Father of Punctuation 217
A Matriarch of Rome 219
Paula's Tale: Mourning 221
Hieronymus and the Lion 224
Obiter Dictum 226
St. Paula among the Marigolds 228
Deo Gratias 229
The Lost Diaries 231
St, Jerome in the Chalcis Desert 234
Caput Mundi 235
St. Jerome Rests from His Labors 237
St. Jerome in Decline 239
St. Jerome Alone 242
A Letter from the Abbess Paula the Younger 244
New Poems (2010-2016)
River Lamps 249
The Women of Juarez 250
The Prisoner 251
This Lion 252
Egypt Liberated 254
I Won't Pretend 255
If I Could 256
Baila-Ma 257
Gone 259
Mother My Ship 260
Martin Falk's Last Photographs 261
The Inheritance 263
Dear Old Dad 264
The Father of All Things 266
Elegy at Midnight 267
The Consolations of Love 269
Dog Sleeping 270
Late November Lament 271
Dawn over the Tiber River 272
Notes and Dedications 275
